Jaipur Palace Indian @ Alimos

It has been sometime since my last post. No particular reason, except for I did not have much time during the last few weekends. We have been travelling and eating around as usual.

Today I will post about Jaipur Palace in Alimos. We went there with a discount coupon, so ours is not a regular visitor's experience, but I hope it still helps to give people an idea.

The 'original' Jaipur Palace is in Kifissia. Then, when Iskandar in Alimos closed its door, Jaipur took over the exercise, almost without any change in interior and exterior decor. One Indian is good for another other?

Here is the interior. In comparison to some new Indian restaurants in central Athens, it is definitely kitsch. It might be good or bad, depending on your taste. I just did not like the water cups made of metal, because they made water taste metal.

It was a Friday evening. When we arrived at 8 o'clock, it was totally empty. When we left at around 10, two other tables were occupied, but still it was far from lively. The amount of customer traffic might have influenced the freshness of the food, as you read below.

Papadom.

Sauces and pickles for papadom.

These reminded me of my former life in England. I felt nostalgic.

As starter, we chose vegetable samosas.

The filling tasted too much of green peas and little spice. And there was a hint of staleness. I did not like them at all.

Here is one of their tandoor dish. I don't remember the name, but they are morsels of chicken breast, marinated with nuts paste and spices.

Meat was so tender that the texture was almost mashy. Probably not badly executed, but was not what I liked.

From curries, we chose something with lamb. If you think that the portion is tiny, it is an illusion. This sort of Indian metal bowls looks small, but can contain more than you expect.

I did not like this one either. There was no sharpness of fresh spices. I suspected the sauce was cooked a while ago. Same with the meat, which was cooked to death. All in all, it was uninteresting stale stew.

Naans looked right, but they were too tough and dry to be really right. Not bad though.

Pilau rice was probably the most properly cooked thing this evening.

With a bit of drink and water, we paid 30 Euro for the coupon. But if you order without discount, it would have been 50 to 60 Euro. Way too expensive for what they are. Definitely I would stick to Indian restaurants in Athens.

Jaipur Palace
Eleftherias Avenue 6 (end of Amfitheas), Alimos
Λ. Ελευθερίας 6 (Πρώην Αμφιθέας), Άλιμος

Tel. +30 2109812009
Μob +30 6947117451
http://www.jaipur-palace.gr/

Alberobello @ Alimos

[P.S. on 6 Jan., 2014: This restaurant does not exist any more].

Visited Italian restaurant Alberobello in Alimos on a weekday.



Of course I was not expecting the place to be busy (if anyone has not noticed yet, Athens is in a deep crisis), but I placed a reservation all the same, because with a reservation, there is a better chance of getting better service.

But I did not expected it to be so empty.

No one here.



No one there.



It was about eight o'clock & until the time we left at ten, there were only two other patrons, although there some take-away orders presumably from visitors of the cafeteria Ostria which is in the same building.

Anyway, we were greeted by a polite waiter and, after placing the order, we were served a piece of grilled bread with garlic-flavoured tomato bits.



Hubby's beer was Mythos, because this is the only non-bottled beer.



We order a salad as starter. Italians would not order salad as starter, but we are in Greece, so "in Athens as the Greeks do".



It was called Salad "Casanova" and except for leaves there were plenty of mozzarella and tuna. I was not sure if this combination worked (why the Greeks mix everything?), but would not question their generosity; we got half full when we finished it.

Hubby ordered chicken scaloppina with lemon. We could choose the garnish and he of course chose fried potatoes.



He said he liked it, but I thought that the chicken was cooked far too long time & the result being hard & dry pieces of slices of chicken breast.

Mine was Tagliata di Vitello and of course I chose vegetables as garnish. I asked "al sangue" and came pretty pink.



Veal does not have the depth in flavour as beef does, but as veal steak it was all right, although I would have preferred balsamic vinegar instead of the yellow dressing.



If we were in Italy, tagliata should be made with manzo, i.e. beef, but in Greece beef is something hard to get. Shame.

The vegetable garnish tasted like something frozen at some time in its life. I usually can finish anything veggie, but I left some pieces meaning that I did not like it.

We were quite full when we finished the above dishes and skipped the dessert. So we thought...

Hubby just ordered an espresso, with which the waiter brought us some liqueur that Hubby said is "Amaro".



Then, we were offered even dessert, this time by the Italian manager from Puglia (so we discovered afterwards). He said it was Zuccotto which was boozy ice cream with candied fruits in sponge cake skin. This one tasted the most Italian dish we ate on this occasion.



The total bill came to 48.50 Euro which I thought was acceptable by the Italian restaurant standard in Greece (and it was very reasonable if I consider all the freebies).

All in all, we found the meal enjoyable. Next time we would like to try pizza.

BILL IN DETAIL
Bread 2 Euro (not photographed here)
Insalata Casanova 9.50 Euro
Scaloppina al limone 12.50 Euro
Tagliata di vitello 15.50 Euro
Beer 6.50 Euro
Mineral water 2.50 Euro

Total 48.50 Euro

Alberobello
Paralia Alimou, Alimos
Tel. 210 9852 350
http://www.alberobello.gr/